The other day, I told students in one class that understanding the world, which is what learning is about, is to a large extent nothing but conversations--with those around us, with authors of texts that we read, with speakers we watch, and--heck--even with Socrates. So, along those lines, I suppose this post is a continuation of the conversation from three years ago ;)

First a recap of the issues for those who are jumping into the conversation without any idea of what happened: "Samoa Air in 2013 became the first airline to charge passengers by weight." That was what the retired businessman had blogged about in joy. Since then, Hawaiian Airlines came to the same idea of weighing the Samoan passengers:

The problem for Hawaiian Airlines began when the carrier discovered
it was burning through more fuel than anticipated on its route between
Honolulu and the small Pacific island territory of American Samoa,
according to reporting
by the Associated Press. The airline ruled out explanations like strong
winds and decided to conduct a voluntary survey among its passengers on
the route. The results were clear: passengers and their carry-on
luggage were, on average, 30 pounds (14 kilograms) heavier than
expected.
So Hawaiian Airlines instituted a new policy. People
flying between Honolulu and American Samoa would no longer be able to
select their seats before arriving at the airport. Instead, they would
be assigned seats when they checked in so that the carrier could
distribute their weight evenly around the plane.

Now, if Samoans weighed only as much as the sports-maniac did, then nothing to worry about. But, Samoans "have among the highest rates of obesity in the world."

Three years ago, my comment was this:

Hmmm ... you should be happy that you are not in the US--by now, a
lawyer would have sued for a pound of flesh from you. Oh wait, you
don't have a pound on you!!!

Well ... in a way, yes, this Hawaiian Airlines decision did not go unnoticed. The people complained that:

Hawaiian’s decision is discriminatory because it applies only to that
one route, most of whose passengers are Samoan or of Samoan descent.

How do you think that the U.S. Department of Transportation ruled on this? I will leave it to you infer that from the headline of the article ;)

As a small person who has been subsidizing large people on airline flights forever, all I can say is get over it. You've had it lucky for years. A truly just and equitable system would be to charge everyone by total weight (body plus luggage). We seem to accept that principle for freight. Well, that's what we all are, human freight.

We are human freight? It is one heck of a strange world in which we live. Am reminded of the Brazil minister's response to the notorious memo authored by Larry Summers back when he was the World Bank's chief economist: " reasoning is perfectly logical but totally insane." Hey, that's another memory recall; how about that! ;)

4 comments:

I remember my first ever domestic flight in the US some 25 years ago. I was on a two seater. A generously endowed man had already occupied one of the seats and ,in reality he was spread over both the seats. I had nowhere to sit. The plane was completely full and there were no other seats. I was too timid to raise a protest and I really did a 2 hour flight occupying 2 inches of my seat.

The commenter is absolutely right. The key variable of the cost of flying is weight. ANA even went to the extent of asking passengers to pee before boarding a flight in order to reduce weight. No I am not joking; I even blogged about it. So I join the commenter in railing how much I have subsidised airlines for so many years without even getting a "thank you for weighing so less" smile :):)

The Economist points out something important: the airlines might have won this logic battle, but has lost the PR war. It is also this PR issue that prevents most other airlines from treating us as "human freight" ...

I would venture that a much higher percentage of obese do not fly ... because, oddly enough, obesity and incomes have a highly complicated relationship. My point is that if we are truly concerned about obesity as a public health issue, then most of that problem is outside the airports of the world. And, if we in the outside world we won't shame and humiliate the obese, then why do that in this select group of airline passengers?

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